I will not mention all the varieties which passed before my dazzled eyes,
all the collection of the seas of China and Japan. These fish,
more numerous than the birds of the air, came, attracted, no doubt,
by the brilliant focus of the electric light.
Suddenly there was daylight in the saloon, the iron panels closed again,
and the enchanting vision disappeared. But for a long time I dreamt on,
till my eyes fell on the instruments hanging on the partition.
The compass still showed the course to be E.N.E., the manometer
indicated a pressure of five atmospheres, equivalent to a depth
of twenty five fathoms, and the electric log gave a speed of fifteen
miles an hour. I expected Captain Nemo, but he did not appear.
The clock marked the hour of five.
Ned Land and Conseil returned to their cabin, and I retired to my chamber.
My dinner was ready. It was composed of turtle soup made of the
most delicate hawks bills, of a surmullet served with puff paste
(the liver of which, prepared by itself, was most delicious), and fillets
of the emperor-holocanthus, the savour of which seemed to me superior
even to salmon.
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